(first 3 in person, last 2 on television)

1. The Miracle at Memorial Cal Football 1993- started out down 30-0 to Danny O’Neil’s Oregon Ducks. Behind the hard running of Lindsay Chapman and some outstanding defense and special teams work (blocked punt) – pull to within 41-40 with 30 seconds left. Gilby descides to go for 2, and they run a fade to the corner for Iheanyi Uwazaeoke (same exact route Mike Caldwell ran for the touchdown to put us at 40 points) – win the game 42-41.

2. Cal Basketball 1994 – No. 1 (or 2 or 3) ranked Arizona comes into the Oakland Coliseum behind All American Sean Elliott and a backcourt of Kahlid Reeves and Damon Stoudamire (and the hated Reggie Geary). Lamond Murray blocks a shot at the buzzer for the win.

3. Cal Basketball 1993 – Cal vs. USC Harmon Gym, Todd Bozeman had just been appointed as head coach 1 game previously, where the Bears dismantled an overmatched CSU Northridge team. USC was our first test in the post-Campinelli era, the game went to overtime, and Jason Kidd won the game by converting a 3 point play off a rebound.

4. Cal basketball vs. Duke 1993 NCAA Tournament. “Kidd. . . by Hurley .. . ball is loose . . he got it. . . and IN!!!!!”

5. Cal basketball vs. Arizona 1994 in Tucson – Lamond Murray sinks a fade away 3 to send the game to overtime. Jason and Lamond dominate the OT.

Others that obviously belong on the list, but I missed or just missed my list because I was living overseas or something: Cal vs. USC 2003, Leon Powe and Ayinde Ubaka in the Pac-10 tournament in 2006, Geno Carsilse winning the NIT on a last second scoop against Clemson (?), Cal vs. Clemson in the 1991 Citrus Bowl.

Not making the list: Cal vs. OSU 13-10 in Corvallis where Pat Barnes was thrown out of hte game with 1 minute left for trash talking after he put us up 13-10. This was when the Beavers were the worst program in Div. I college football. We spent the day throwing Jolly Ranchers at Beavers fans and then went to Le Bistro Montage in Portland for dinner where Spicy Spam and Mac was consumed. Not a highlight victory.

I think most people will say USC-Cal 2003, but, sadly, that was before I followed Cal football intensely enough to watch games (also known as when I came to Cal).

I would go with the most recent game that everyone is talking about, but I was too busy watching Jake Delhomme throw five picks and lose a fumble (my logic was that I like football more than basketball and football season ends Feb 1st, so I must enjoy all the football I can right now).

Sadly, my example will be Oregon 2008, which I saw on tv, not live :(

Oregon 2007 wasn’t necessarily the most exhilarating Cal victory I had ever seen, but it (at the time) felt like a truly special win. After that win, it looked like Cal was finally destined to win the Pac-10 title (especially after USC lost the next week). The team had all the essential components to go to the Rose Bowl. But we all know how that turned out…

WSU 2008 was great because I had never seen Cal tear apart an opponent like that (and who could forget Brock Mansion’s first ever touchdown).

Insight Bowl win over VTech was exhilarating, as was USC 03.

Still eight spots below ASU.

USC 2003 & VT 2003 – in that order

Most exhilarating loss: USC 2004

Totes.

Although it wasn’t as marquee as the rest of these games..

UDub ‘06… Last second Hail Mary WTF?!?!… Dominate in OT… Marshawn Lynch on a Bitch (Cal Bear!)… All the Cal players gettin’ hyphy after OT

Great atmosphere at that game… Stadium was packed despite playing an OK Husky team w/o Isaiah Stanback

Just a fun time all around

For Basketball:

New Years’ Eve Day 2005: Our team ran a train on UCLA @ Pauley to sweep the LA schools (Powe rebounds, Ubaka scores)

Another not-so-meaningful one, but fun times nonetheless

By far the most exciting and electric, if you were in the student section then you know what I am talking about.

I’ve got 3 exhilarating wins that I was lucky enough to witness live.

1) Oregon 2007 - This was the most exhilarated win I’ve ever seen. I timed moving from the bay area to Seattle around this game (also the fact that the LSAT was offered on this saturday helped). I convinced my roommates in the bay area at the time that it was worth their while to make the drive to the game, and also pack all of my worldly possessions into their car for the trip. Then I convinced one of my Seattle roommates that it was worth their drive as well, so that once I got to Oregon, I could transfer my stuff and effectively move before/after the game. If any of you haven’t been to a game in Autzen, it’s a must see location in the Pac-10. I was also lucky that my undergrad fraternity had made an RV trip to the game, so I got a chance to tailgate in fashion with a keg, beer bong, and some drinking games (namely: drink the beer). After some imbibing, I took a walk around the Oregon fans and saw the pregame festivities that they had, at one point Seattle-roommate almost fought a guy on crutches during some shit talk. My first impression of the stadium was the magnitude of noise relative to the number of people there. Autzen is freaking loud. My seats were pretty high up in one of the corners of the stadium, and I was entirely surrounded by Oregon fans, but that only made the game better. Of course, there were some total asshole fans, but by and large there was a great conversation going on throughout the game with the people I was sitting near. I learned a lot about Oregon football, and for most of the plays we all had some good conjectures of the thoughts or game-plans being employed by each team. On Oregon’s final drive, my heart was in my throat due to nervousness, so I couldn’t really say anything or talk to anyone near me (I was sure that the game was going to overtime and Oregon would win). As loud as the stadium was during the game, it was dead silent with the review of the fumble, and I wasn’t about to start talking shit to anyone around me after the game we’d watched. The drive home to Seattle was entirely emotionless, I’d left too much in the stadium as we were watching Cal become the #2 team in the country. It was the most emotional sporting event I’ve ever seen live.

I’m utterly slammed at work, so I’ll try to update the other two games (they’re good ones) today when I can.

1. Oregon 2007

2. Oregon 2006

3. ASU 2004

1. for ever and ever (probably)

SC @ Cal in ’03. My first Pac-10 game during my freshman year. Pure unadulterated cocaine for a longtime Cal fan.

Others in random order:

-Cal beating NC St. in the first round of the tourney on Midgley’s buzzer beating 3
-Senior day a couple of years ago when the student section punked Gabe Pruitt and Steve Panawek (walk-on senior) got a dunk at the end of the game.
-Any Teford era win over Oregon

• Leon Powe’s astounding game, but also Ayinde Ubaka tying the game at the end of regulation and then making two free throws at the end of the 2nd overtime to put the game away.
• Making fun of that one Oregon player who was suspended for elbowing Ryan Appleby in the face in their previous game.
• Making it to the final game of the Pac-10 Tournament for the first time.
• Knowing the the Bears were going to make the NCAAs, and the season was not over yet.

“The Play”

I was -2.

Cal’s National Championship Year in ’29…that Rose Bowl was awesome…I was -80

What kind of fan are you if you can’t come up with that conclusion on your own?!

For those of you younger Bears who haven’t seen the Miracle at Memorial

The always relible PRD74 has it here. Watch,

Whoops. looks like my memory is shot. They went to Ih-hu for the touch and Caldwell for the 2.

I’ve been a Cal football season ticket holder since 1977. Sadly, this means I have seen a lot more horrible, nightmare, disaster games than exhilarating victories. But maybe that makes the victories all the sweeter. Here is my list of the top 10 most exhilarating Cal victories I have personally attended, in chronological order:

1. 1977: Cal 17, USC 14. My freshman year. A very hard-fought game, with lots of personal foul and unsportmanlike penalties on both sides. The headline in Monday’s Daily Cal, "Cal Does It With Feeling!" One of the highlights was the Cal Band playing "Fight On for Old SC" at about 1/3 tempo and then segueing into "The Old Gray Mare Ain’t What She Used to Be." (If only . . . )

2. 1982: Cal 25, Stanfurd 20. Yes, I really was there. I still have my ticket to prove it. It was a great game even before The Play, but it was absolutely heart-breaking when that little snot Elway took the Indians . . . Birds . . . Trees (whatever) to a field goal with 4 seconds left. We had had them 4th and 17 on their own 13-yard-line, for godssake! I was sitting with my folks, and after the field goal my mom said in despair that she didn’t know why they were even bothering with a kickoff, since there were only four seconds left. My dad uttered these immortal words, "Now Nancy, a lot can happen in four seconds." It did.

3. 1983: Cal 33, Arizona 33. Okay, it was a tie, but it seemed like a victory. Arizona was ranked #3 nationally at the time, and Cal was struggling through a 5-5-1 season. Arizona led 30-0 at the half. Cal made an amazing comeback to tie the game in the second half.

4. 1986: Cal 75, UCLA 67. (Yes, that’s a basketball score.) I didn’t go to many basketball games, but a friend had season tickets and invited me. Wow. Cal had lost 52 straight games to UCLA. We hadn’t beaten them since 1961. This was spoken of in horror as "The Streak." Old Harmon Gym was small and pokey, but boy was it loud. Much louder than Haas is today, because of the way the sound bounced around. My ears rang for two days after the game. People stormed the court, the nets were cut down. It was awesome. I remember Joe Kapp, who was then Cal’s football coach (and had not only quarterbacked Cal to the 1959 Rose Bowl, but had also been on the 1959 National Championship basketball team), dancing around on the court wearing one of the nets around his neck.

5. 1991: Cal 86, Pacific 24. (Yes, that’s a football score.) It wasn’t what you’d call a close game, but it sure was fun. More like a big Cal party than a football game. This was the season opener and we suddenly knew that after years of Cal football horrors, our long national nightmare was over. (Of course it would come back in a couple of years, but who knew?) It was Cal’s biggest victory since a 127-0 game against St. Mary’s in 1920. After about 10 Cal touchdowns, the cannon stopped firing. They ran out of ammunition!

6. 1991: Cal 52, USC 30. Oh, the good old days! And it wasn’t even as close as the final score looks. SC got a couple of touchdowns in garbage time, when Cal had its fourth-string players in, to make it seem almost respectable. It was just a good, old-fashioned whipping. The kind of thing Cal fans are used to receiving, rather than giving. The Cal Band shone once again. They kept a running count of every time the SC Band played "Fight On" (over 100) and "Conquest (close to 100). And they came up with a song which the Cal students sang to the tune of "Conquest": "This is the only song you know. It’s boring and it’s slow. We really wish you’d go." (The students added an unofficial fourth verse: "You mother is a ho.") Another game that was really just a giant Cal party.

7. 1992 (January 1): Cal 37, Clemson 13. The Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida. Yes, we really did go all the way to Florida for this one. It was the triumphant end to the 1991 season. The national media of course said that Cal was one of those wimpy west coast teams that couldn’t compete with the big boys, and that big, bad Clemson would eat us alive. Not. Russell White became the only back to run for more than 100 yards against Clemson that year, and Mike Pawlawski introduced Clemson to the idea of the forward pass. Cal ended up ranked #7 nationally, and had our first 10-win season since 1949. All that, and we also got to go to Disneyworld! Of course it all came crashing down almost immediately when Coach Bruce $nyder announced two days later than he was leaving Cal for a big money contract at Arizona State. That was the end of that great early ‘90s run.

8. 2003: Cal 34, USC 31 (3OT). I’m sure you all know about this one. Glad I was there.

9. 2007: Cal 45, Tennessee 31. I don’t have to describe this one for you either. I’ll just say that I have never seen that kind of atmosphere in Memorial Stadium, from the pregame right through to the end. After decades of bad football and uninspired crowds of 35,000, it’s still almost unbelievable what Jeff Tedford has done for Cal. No matter how much I may disagree with him on a particular decision (yes, I’m talking about Nate), he is an absolutely magnificent coach. If you didn’t suffer through the 30 years of horror before Tedford, you’ll never really know.

10. 2009: Cal 57, Stanfurd 54. Yes, that’s also a basketball score. A women’s basketball score. Let me tell you, the Cal women’s team is the most exciting thing in Northern California sports right now. Any time I spend the last 10 minutes of a game feeling sick to my stomach, I know it was a great game. Do yourself a favor, and get out there and support our women’s team.

 Bonus Game:
11. 1954: Oklahoma 27, Cal 13. I realize this game violates the rules. It was a Cal loss, and I didn’t see it, since it was played before I was born. But as far as I’m concerned, it was the most important Cal game ever played. It’s where my parents went on their first date. If things hadn’t gone well . . .